MMA derailment in Nantes not reported to local authorities

Katherine Wilton, THE GAZETTE01.19.2014

An empty cargo train belonging to Montreal Maine & Atlantic Railway derailed in Nantes this month, the same place an unattended train began to roll away toward disaster in nearby Lac-Mégantic last July.

When an empty cargo train owned by the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway derailed on the outskirts of Nantes earlier this month, the town’s mayor learned about the incident two days later on Facebook.

The MMA, the rail company responsible for the train disaster that killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic last July, didn’t inform town officials, the local fire department or the Sûreté du Québec, even though one of the derailed locomotives ended up adjacent to Highway 161, one of town’s main roads, Nantes’s Mayor Jacques Breton said on Monday.

“The road was closed for an hour,” said Breton, adding that he learned about the accident 48 hours later after reading a post about it on a friend’s Facebook page.

Breton suggested that the beleaguered railway company tried to keep the derailment quiet because it didn’t want any bad publicity given its impending sale in the U.S. later this month.

“They worked quickly to get it back on the track with a crane and tried to camouflage it as much as they could,” he claimed.

The railway company, which is under bankruptcy protection, is scheduled to be sold at an auction in Maine in a few weeks. The company will continue to operate after the sale.

“This isn’t the time to say that there are derailments all over the place,” Breton speculated.

The train was empty when the accident occurred and the derailment was likely caused by a buildup of ice and snow on poorly-maintained tracks, Breton said.

The accident happened in the Laval Nord section of Nantes, about four kilometres from Lac-Mégantic.

He said it’s unacceptable that the company failed to inform him or anyone else in the town of the derailment because there are farms and residential houses close by.

When a derailment occurs near a residential area or a public road, local officials are supposed to be informed, he said.

Breton said he hopes the new owners of the railway commit to upgrading the tracks in Nantes because he said they are in poor condition.

“They are not secure,” he said.

MMA filed for bankruptcy protection after the July derailment, which was caused after a train with 72 oil tankers began rolling after being left unattended in Nantes.

The runaway train derailed and exploded, destroying much of the town centre in Lac-Mégantic and spilling nearly six million litres of crude oil.

After the accident in Lac-Mégantic, MMA said it would no longer transport oil.

Officials with MMA didn’t return phone calls from The Gazette on Monday.

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